COMMUNITY
Blue Mountain Eagle
A6
Wednesday, April 22, 2020
BUILDING BLOCKS
HEALTHY COMPETITION
F
or all of you sports
fans, as you know, there
is nothing better than
to watch a close competi-
tive game between two sports
teams. The spectator’s excite-
ment, enthusiasm and cheer-
ing accelerate as the offense
and defense battle for the win.
Crowds gasp as the score is
tied, once again, while the
clock loses time. The referee
calls a timeout. Players run to
their coaches to hear encour-
agement and receive the win-
ning play instructions. The
whistle sounds, the crowds
cheer and the players resume
adrenaline. Inch by inch, the
score goes back and forth
until time runs out, and over-
time begins to break the tie.
With the spectators on their
feet anticipating the next play,
hoping their team wins, or at
this point the best team wins,
the ball floats through the air
seemingly in slow motion
with only a few seconds on
the clock, and it hits the mark.
Game over.
This illustrates healthy
competition.
Two teams
of equal tal-
ent, practiced
and coached,
battling it out
while giving
Dorothy
it their all.
Nestlerode
In the
business
world of economics, healthy
competition is similar. Busi-
ness owners offensively mar-
ket their products (goods and
services) while defensively
setting competitive prices and
offering quality customer ser-
vice. Spectators, or custom-
ers, in this case, watch for
price wars, sales, discounts,
rewards and selected goods
or services while the owner
strategically plans, provides
desirable goods and services
and attempts to meet the sup-
ply and demand. As the sea-
son changes, the owner not
only inches his way from
closing out products or shift-
ing services, but also inches
into the new season’s product
or service. Customers watch
for the greatest and the latest
new product or deal, while the
owner gasps in excitement and
hopes for a profitable winning
season.
Then overtime happens
because the game is multifac-
eted. Not only does the owner
strategize to meet the supply
and demand of their custom-
ers, but the other businesses
selling the same or similar
goods and services are part of
the competition. This is the
game changer. If the compe-
tition plays fair, ethically and
within the boundaries of the
law, it’s exciting and bene-
fits both businesses and cus-
tomers. But, when the ref-
eree is not present to call a fair
game, no one wins. This usu-
ally creates unhealthy domi-
nating competition. In busi-
ness, this could be referred to
as a monopoly.
A monopoly is defined as
“a single producer of a product
or service. In law, a monopoly
is a firm that has a lot of mar-
ket power and is able to charge
very high prices for a prod-
uct or service.” The consumer
loses because of the lack of
competition as the business
invariably delivers poor qual-
ity of service or products at
high pricing and limited con-
sumer choice. To be consid-
ered a healthy community,
we need to offer customers
choices of goods and services;
and in a small rural commu-
nity like Grant County, indi-
rect competition is healthy
while direct competition is
unhealthy.
Direct competitors and
indirect competitors define
healthy and unhealthy com-
petition. A direct competitor
has watched all of their com-
petitor’s film footage over and
over, studied their plays and
run the same game, having
no plays of their own. This is
the business down the street
that offers the same products
and services to the same cus-
tomer base while copycatting
the winning business. To stay
alive the winning owner must
continue to be innovative and
creative to stay ahead of the
direct competitor. This is a real
challenge in small communi-
ties, which lead to unhealthy
competition, where both
businesses struggle or fail,
and customers are not given
variety.
A healthy competitor is
known as an indirect com-
petitor, a business who offers
the same or similar goods
and services that can serve as
a viable substitute. This is the
coach who studied the other
team, but came up with his
own team plays that took his
team to the playoffs. Another
illustration is two family
restaurants serving break-
fast, lunch and dinner but
with different menu items.
They may both offer salads,
but the salads are prepared
differently. Offering variety
for the customer is a win for
everyone especially in Grant
County where choices are
limited.
How does Grant County
economically become the win-
ning team? The coaches (city,
county, chamber of commerce
O utlook
SENI
R
Hey! Guess who
came
to see me?
Prairie City
The Easter Bunny!
Seniors
I was a-working
away on the music
Rose Coombs
for Sunday in
my studio and
wondered who Derrol was taking to out in the front
room. Turned out to be a friend who was delivering
little bouquets to people from the Easter Bunny. Thank
you so much. I really appreciate the gesture. The flowers
were a lovely violet carnation and a yellow daffodil with
a couple sprigs of greenery. Yeah. Spring!
And I’m here to report that the flower saving stuff that
I put in the large bouquet from the wedding on March
28 really works! Those flowers lasted until April 15! They
gave me a lot of enjoyment during this time of social
isolation. Thanks to all who had a hand in that.
I guess the message about the time to be at the hall to
pick up your meal got through. WE had people arriving
before 11:30 AM and that’s OK. In addition to your
meal, you were able to receive a home-made face mask
courtesy of the Carter sisters of Bear Valley. Thank you
ladies, for doing this for us.
Our meal had meatloaf, mashed potatoes, broccoli
Normandy, veggies, a rice/pasta/veggie salad, roll and
– after you put it all together – strawberry shortcake
for dessert. Since everything has to be put in a traveling
container, the ingredients for the dessert were in separate
containers. Then when you were ready for dessert, you
took the muffin out of its foil wrap and the whipped
cream and strawberries out of their container and mixed
them up and it was delicious! Thanks to our cooks,
Laura and Laura, helper Tom, registrar Pam, runners
Carole and Ginger and home deliverer Carlos for a great
job well done. Takes all hands to make things work.
But we would rather be sitting down at our tables in
the hall… Some day soon we hope. We are grateful that
there has been an extremely low level of infections in
our little city and county. PTL.
In the olden days, like back before printing on paper
became available, books were made of vellum, which
was made from the skins of calves and sheep. How?
That I dton’t know. Ask Siri. Anyway, when Gutenberg
printed the Bible on vellum, it was 1,300 pages, which
would have taken 170 calves or 300 sheep. Europe’s
cattle industry never could have supported book
production on the scale necessitated by the printing
press. But paper could. So what’s the purpose of this bit
of trivia? To help you remember that innovation can be
a good thing.
Again, in the olden days – like 1960 – there were no
personal computers or cell phones. In toay’s world,
some people have no idea how they would live without
these items. Especially in this time of social isolation.
So this is your challenge for the day: How would you
communicate without electronics? People did it for
6,000 years. Why can’t we now?
Psalm 139:16 “… All the days ordained for me were
written in your book before one of them came to be.”
Malachi 3:16 “Then those who feared the LORD talked
with each other, and the LORD listened and heard. A scroll
of remembrance was written in His presence concerning
those who feared the LORD and honored His name.”
You know,
this Covid-19
doesn’t seem to
be stopping or
Soo Yukawa
slowing down the
folks in Monument
from coming to get their food for the Tuesday lunch.
Ha. In fact, there were 55 takeout lunches served by the
cooks, Terry Cade and Carrie Jewell. Those who picked
up their lunches enjoyed a nice meal of spaghetti, fresh
garden salad, garlic bread and a chocolate chip cookie.
We thank and bless our cooks.
I will have to share something funny though that
happened to my chocolate chip cookie. I do not
like soft and mushy cookies. So, I put my cookie in
my toaster oven and was trying to toast it to make it
crunchy. Silly me, I just placed the soft cookie on the
rack and when I tried to retrieve it, it fell right through
the rack! Boo hoo, I did not get to eat my chocolate
chip cookie, sigh. My oldest felt sorry for me so she
gave me the last bite of hers. Lesson learned, don’t put a
soft cookie right on the rack of the toaster oven.
Kristi Guimont and Jan Ensign did all the paperwork
and counted the money. Aubrieanna Osborne helped
take the food out to those who came to pick up their
takeouts. Bob Cockrell collected the money from the
people in their cars. It is all very organized and efficient.
We thank all our volunteers for their hard work.
I visited and chatted with my friend Jimmy Cole and
he helped me in suggesting that I get all my family to
pitch in doing the garden work. We are all going to
go out every day to do at least two hours of work in
the garden. My hubby and oldest are helping to pull
out the old beds and weeds. I then come in and plant
some seed and put in some fresh dirt. (You know, the
old chicken poop that has been cooking down during
the fall and winter time) and then I have my two little
kiddos coming in to water right behind me. Pretty good
teamwork wouldn’t you say?
My other daughter is helping to also weed out a few of
my flowerbeds. That is a task she likes to do because she
likes pretty flowers. I think all this working outside has
been good for us. We are getting our sunshine, vitamin
D, exercise, and it is building character.
Hope everyone is using this time wisely and getting
all those things that you just didn’t have time for before
done. I got some applesauce canned, going to plant
and utilize every single bed for growing something. I
really hope to plant lots of cucumbers this year so that I
can replenish my dill pickles for the pantry. Maybe if I
get ambitious, I will try and make cucumber kimchee,
maybe. I’ve never made kimchee before but you know
all those Youtube videos out there give you tons of
information and directions. We shall have to see.
Proverbs 16: 7 “When a man’s ways please the LORD, He
maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.”
Monument
Seniors
and economic development
leadership) study the game of
business, determine the needs
and winning strategy for our
county, prepare the infrastruc-
ture for growth and select the
right business players. Busi-
ness players who offer a vari-
ety of goods and services to
our customer base stimulating
our economy, and who choose
to operate as indirect competi-
tors rather than direct compet-
itors. Grant County businesses
and customers can both ben-
efit with healthy competition.
I wonder how many Grant
County customers would shop
locally if we didn’t have a
monopoly or direct competi-
tion. What goods and services
would you like Grant County
to offer?
Let your city council,
county commissioner, cham-
ber of commerce or Grant
County Economic Develop-
ment know your wants and
needs so we can be the winner.
Dorothy Nestlerode is a
Grant County resident, mother
and local author.
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